[DBTech] DragonByte Mail 4.7.0

Update highlights

This version is a quick bugfix update to address an issue where emails would not send correctly after upgrade to XF 2.0.12.

If you want the full details on the v4.1.0 release, you can check it out here: https://www.dragonbyte-tech.com/store/dragonbyte-mail.342/release/1731/


Complete Change Log

Fix: Fixed various emails not sending correctly after upgrading to XF 2.0.12

Update highlights

This version is a quick bugfix update to address an issue where the "Inactivity Reminder" emails would not work correctly if the license had the Branding Free add-on.

Yeah, I'm not sure how that happened either

If you want the full details on the v4.1.0 release, you can check it out here: https://www.dragonbyte-tech.com/store/dragonbyte-mail.342/release/1731/


Complete Change Log

Fix: Fixed an issue where the inactivity email would not work correctly in certain scenarios

Update highlights

This version features major feature additions and enhancements, with the main highlights being the return of tracking features, as well as the SMTP Validation feature.

You're now able to enable "clicktracking" for mailing list emails, where the links in your email will be converted into a trackable format. When the user clicks links in your email, they'll get redirected to where the links originally pointed to, be they on-site links or external links.
In future updates, we'll expose these statistics to you via logs and statistics.

You're also able to track when an email is opened, along with an estimation of the read time per email.
In future updates, we'll expose these statistics to you via logs and statistics.

Both of these features can be disabled or enabled per mailing list.

The other major feature is, as mentioned previously, SMTP Validation. While this feature isn't as robust as 3rd party services you have to pay for, it is completely free.
If you use the "bounced email" setting in XF2, your server can use this email to essentially pretend to send an email to the remote email server, but cancel the connection before an email is actually sent.
This means if the email server reports that no such user exists, or the remote server doesn't exist any more, your forum will already know this user's email address is invalid.

Your forum will automatically verify 25 email addresses every 3 hours. These values cannot be changed, as increasing them would have a negative impact on the performance of your site. If you wish to manually verify more emails, you can use a command-line tool: php cmd.php dbtech-mail:validate-emails <numEmails>

This feature does come with some requirements regarding your server and your environment, and these are explained in the settings page for this product. Because of these requirements, this feature is disabled by default.

Discovered bugs have also been fixed.

Lastly, we've added an install-upgrade.json file in preparation for compatibility with the [TH] Install & Upgrade add-on.

If you want the full details on the v4.1.0 release, you can check it out here: https://www.dragonbyte-tech.com/store/dragonbyte-mail.342/release/1731/


Complete Change Log

Feature: Outgoing mailing list emails can now have "clicktracking" enabled, toggle-able per mailing list
Feature: Outgoing mailing list emails can now optionally track when someone opens the email in their client
Feature: Added SMTP email validation
Change: Add install-upgrade.json
Change: The mail history templates now include sent/opened statistics for users with the correct permissions
Fix: The Digest now correctly respects the on-off toggle in the "Digests" page in the AdminCP
Fix: The Inactive User Reminder now correctly respects the global shut-off switch in the options

Update highlights

This update fixes various issues reported in Beta 2.

The digest "introduction" field would not actually allow HTML in the final email as intended, and the "excluded forums" setting would appear to not save due to a display issue.

Lastly, a missing phrase in the "user change log" for the inactivity reminder email preference has been added.

If you want the full details on the v4.1.0 release, you can check it out here: https://www.dragonbyte-tech.com/store/dragonbyte-mail.342/release/1731/


Complete Change Log

Fix: Fixed the introduction not correctly allowing HTML in Digests
Fix: Fixed a display issue where the excluded forums in the digest settings would appear to not have saved
Fix: Fixed a missing phrase for the "receive inactivity reminder emails" preference when viewing the user change log

Update highlights

This update fixes various issues reported in Beta 1.

Most importantly, issues that would prevent a new mailing list from being added as well as issues with the "rebuild default subscribed" and "Mass unsubscribe" maintenance actions have been resolved.

If you want the full details on the v4.1.0 release, you can check it out here: https://www.dragonbyte-tech.com/store/dragonbyte-mail.342/release/1731/


Complete Change Log

Fix: Attempting to add a new mailing list would halt due to referring to old, removed options
Fix: The "Email transport" option was not correctly selected when adding a new mailing list
Fix: The "mailing lists" list in the AdminCP was referring to an old, removed option
Fix: The upgrade step from v4.0.x would fail on porting the "subscribed" state when modifying the Subscription database table
Fix: The code for the "Rebuild default subscribed" and "Mass unsubscribe" maintenance actions is now correctly included
Fix: The restriction to only include users with state "Valid" when sending mailing lists has been added as intended
Fix: The "Email transport" option in mailing lists was not correctly applied when sending mail

Update highlights

We're happy to bring you the first Beta version of our third major rewritten XenForo 2 only mod: DragonByte Mail!

Before we delve into the changes:

• This is a Beta version, with sweeping database changes. Do not install this on a production forum without a backup that you can revert to in case something goes wrong. But please help us test it!
• This version will not run on XenForo 1. Going forward, the focus of development will be on the XF2 version.
• It is recommended that you disable the modification before updating, if you're upgrading from v4.0.x.

Without further ado, onto the changes!


Per-Mailing List Permissions
The per-mailing list permissions have been updated to take advantage of XF2's new "Content Permissions" system, meaning you have to re-configure the mailing list permissions after updating.


"Email Stop" Integration
Speaking of integrating with XF2, both the Digest and Mailing List systems now support XF2's "Email Stop" system. This is the system that lets users unsubscribe from site mailings without requiring them to login.

Prior to this update, if the user indicated they wished to unsubscribe from all site mailings, they would still receive digest and mailing list emails unless they also manually unsubscribed from these.
Not only that, but the custom solution we used to support our own login-less unsubscribe feature has been replaced with the "Email Stop" system, so users can easily unsubscribe from all site mailings no matter what email they receive.
If you've ever received complaints from users that they were still subscribed even after they clicked "Unsubscribe from all site mailings", this is the update for you.


"Send Mail" UI / General UI changes
The UI for sending new email to a mailing list has been significantly improved. If your mailing list uses custom HTML (the "Custom Template" option), you're no longer required to enter both a text body and a HTML body for the email. XF2 will automatically generate a text body from your HTML.

For both the "Custom Template" and "Native Template" styles, there's now support for XF2's drafts system. This is the system you see when posting a new thread or a post, then come back to the same page later - you'll see your thread title and post content still there. Email subject, email body and chosen keywords will be saved automatically, so you don't have to manually copy anything back to a text editor if you have to shut off your computer for whatever reason

The UI across the entire product has been updated to follow XF2's standards, and the main list of all mailing lists has been updated to look more like a forum listing, for improved consistency with the rest of XF2.


Complete overhaul of email sending
When sending email to a mailing list, you would previously need to sit through your forum looping over your entire member base in 500 user increments, a time consuming process if you're running a large forum.

As of v4.1, DragonByte Mail now uses an implementation of the same code XF2 uses when you use the built-in "Email users" feature in the AdminCP. It will pre-determine how many users will receive your email based on criteria (such as "user is subscribed to this mailing list", "user has an email address on record" and "user state is valid"), then queue the emails to be delivered to users matching these criteria.

This queue will be processed by XF2's background task runner, so it happens automatically as soon as the email has been queued.

Not only does this negate the need to leave your browser open for a long time watching it loop over users, but it also allows us to give you an estimate of how many users will receive your email. The estimate isn't perfect, since keyword subscriptions aren't considered during this initial filtering of users, but it's a good indication

The same applies to the Digest, and you now also have the full set of user criteria (the same interface you see when searching for users via the AdminCP) to further narrow down who will receive your digest. It too will queue emails in a similar fashion and deliver them automatically.


Other, smaller changes
The controls for changing digest preferences (such as on/off, and frequency) has been moved to the standard "Email options" part of the user preferences page, rather than a stand-alone page.

Last, but by no means least, the SMTP Override options per-mailing list now uses the XF2 standard "Email transport" options you would configure in the email options page, so you're no longer constrained to overriding your mailing list's transport options with either SMTP or nothing.


Complete Change Log

Feature: Reworked the entire modification to be a native XF2 modification, for improved performance and compatibility
Feature: Improved per-mailing list permissions, now using the Content Permissions system in XF2
Feature: Mailing list unsubscriptions are now compatible with the EmailStop system in XenForo
Feature: When sending a new email to a mailing list, drafts are auto-saved so you can resume sending them later
Feature: Emails sent to a mailing list no longer requires you to sit through redirects going through your entire member base
Feature: After queuing an email to be sent to members subscribed to a mailing list, a banner will be displayed showing the number of users who will receive the email
Feature: Digest unsubscriptions are now compatible with the EmailStop system in XenForo
Feature: Digest settings are now accessible under the normal Email settings in the Preferences panel
Feature: Digests now support the full "user criteria" stack to control who will receive the digest
Change: Removed unneeded options from the Mailing List settings
Change: Reworked the "SMTP override" settings to be compatible with XF2's email transport system
Change: The mailing lists UI has been significantly reworked to resemble a forum / node listing
Change: The "send mail" UI has been significantly reworked to resemble a thread posting
Change: When sending mail to "custom template" mailing lists, you no longer have to enter a text body

What is happening?
On the 11th of July 2018, XenForo published their Resource Guidelines aimed at ensuring performance & stability of XenForo modifications. At the moment, this product does not meet these standards, due to the fact that this product has been engineered to allow the core code to run on both XenForo 1 and XenForo 2.

As a result, I am beginning work on re-engineering this product to become a "native" XenForo 2 modification. At this point in time, there are no plans to re-engineer the XenForo 1 version, as the guidelines appear to target XF2 specifically.


What does this mean for the XF1 version?

Given that I will no longer be able to produce new features for XF1 and XF2 simultaneously without also doubling the work, the version numbers for the XF1 and XF2 versions may diverge going forward. The primary focus of development will be the XenForo 2 version of this product. Support for the XF1 version is NOT ending, and you will continue to be able to download the XF1 version alongside the XF2 version free of charge. Whether I will bump the XF1 version's version number to be in line with XF2 is undecided at this time.


What does this mean for the XF2 version?

First of all, I want to be clear that you will NOT have to uninstall the existing XF2 version in order to continue using this product going forward. I will be releasing beta versions of the re-engineered XF2 version as I finish working on them. I will need your help testing the various features and combinations of features in order to ensure the Gold version is as stable as possible.


When will this update be released?

Unfortunately it is not possible for me to give an ETA on when these updates will be completed, as it depends on the complexity of each individual modification.


Will this be a paid upgrade?

If you have an active license at the time of release, you will be able to download the new version free of charge.


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I would also like to ask for your patience while I work on this update. My ability to fix bugs in the existing released version may be diminished, depending on the complexity of the issue.

Update highlights

This version fixes a few issues reported by our customers.


Complete Change Log

XenForo 1.5.x
Fix: FIxed a server error when deleting users

XenForo 2.0.x
Fix: Fixed an issue where the wrong phrase variable was used in the "Inactive User Reminder" email

Change: The copyright URL has been changed to match DBTech's new XF2 URLs
Fix: Bugfix roll-up since previous version

Fix: Bugfix rollup